Wannabe Finks bikie will spend 14 years in jail

by adavies

Adam Davies
Senior Journalist

Adam was born in New South Wales and was educated at the prestigious Scots College in Sydney.
He has worked both in Australia and United Kingdom for some of the largest newspapers in the two respective countries.
He joined APN as a senior journalist at The Chronicle in Toowoomba in 2010, before moving to APN’S Brisbane Newsdesk in 2013 where he covered politics and court.
Adam won a 2015 Queensland Clarion Award - the state's premier journalism awards - and was named 2011 APN Daily Reporter of...

A WANNABE Finks bikie who shot his former girlfriend's new lover will spend the next 14 years behind bars.

Tweed Heads man Robert Kingsley Corowa, 32, was found guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court last month over the attempted murder of Marko Marjanovic on November 26, 2011, after learning he was in a relationship with his former girlfriend.

His week-long trial heard Corowa stalked his former girlfriend Louise Ray to Toowoomba with an Ipswich private investigator after she had earlier tried to fob him off via text messages.

Ms Ray was travelling to Toowoomba to pick up Mr Marjanovic who had been working at Roma.

Corowa followed the pair back to the Gold Coast where he contacted his friend Donald Charles Graham at Cabarita and asked him to bring his "clothes" to him, which he understood was code for the sawn-off shotgun he had buried in his garden.

Corowa and Graham then drove to Mr Marjanovic's mother's house where Graham tricked him into leaving the house to check on his car.

When Mr Marjanovic walked out of the house he was shot at three times with one of the bullets hitting him in his shoulder.

Defence barrister Megan Cusack argued that Corowa would experience a tougher time in jail due to his association with a criminal motorcycle gang.

She said prison authorities had recently downgraded Corowa's prison status after he was initially placed on an intensive management plan shortly after his arrest in relation to the shooting.

"Due to his association with a criminal motorcycle gang he will once again be placed on an intensive management plan after he is sentenced," she said.

"Because of that association he will be subjected to stringent conditions inside jail.

"He will not be afforded the same privileges as other prisoners."

However, Crown Prosecutor Glen Cash tended prison documents that revealed Corowa was only placed on an intensive management plan after threatening another prisoner in the exercise yard.

Justice Martin Daubney, who adjourned sentencing last week to consider the documents, said on Wednesday when the hearing resumed, Corowa had shown absolutely no remorse for his crime.

He said the fact Corowa was on a suspended sentence at the time compounded the seriousness of the crime.

"Your issue with Mr Marjanovic stemmed from jealously," he said.

"Jealously is no excuse for attempting to murder a man.

"There is no excuse for your offending and you have shown absolutely no remorse."

Justice Daubney declared the 838 days Corowa had served in custody as time served.